Tag Archives: Politics

After Republicans Voted AGAIN to Protect Big Oil’s Taxpayer Subsidies, Floridians Left Wondering Who Haridopolos, LeMieux, and Hasner Will Fight for In the Senate

When it comes to Big Oil or taxpayers, whose side are Florida’s Republican Senate hopefuls on? That’s a question Floridians deserve an answer to from Mike Haridopolos and Adam Hasner after their party leaders in Washington once again picked Big Oil yesterday. Continue reading →

Florida Congressman Allen West held a town hall event in Fort Lauderdale this evening. It would have been a better show (by which I mean “authentic”), however it did start with some fireworks.

Upon arriving, everyone was given a card to fill out with standard info such as name, address, phone number, and email. We were also asked to fill out the question/concern we wanted West to address. Initially I assumed it was so they could gauge the temperature of the crowd. Ya know, take stock of general areas of interest and call people to the microphone accordingly. This isn’t unusual considering what most GOP congressman have faced at their respective town halls this week. If anything I figured they were hoping to avoid the Medicare voucher vote entirely.

He works for "you"....just don't ask him any questions

This wasn’t the case it all. Instead of calling people down to voice their concerns, Allen West had 2 staffers allegedly read the questions to him. I know for a fact they threw aside most of genuine questions because they threw out at least 4 people who took issue with this Q & A format. One woman was taken into police custody.

Dave Weigel reports that a Wall Street front group is loading conservative activists with soft ball questions and packing them into GOP town halls. That was what I expected. Instead we have a Congressman totally ducking any questions and soft-balling himself.

With regard to the Debt Ceiling, West defined the terms under which he’ll vote to raise it: a constitutional “balanced budget” amendment”, a provision in the constitution that triggers automatic budget cuts when the federal budget nears the debt limit, deregulation and cutting corporate taxes to 20%.

**UPDATE** Turns out the woman who was arrested by Fort Lauderdale police was Air America’s own Nicole Sandler.

Florida’s Republican legislature is taking aim at dramatically overhauling the Supreme Court. The House passed 3 measures, including a constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot next year.

If approved by 60% of voters, the 7 member Supreme Court would add 3 new members and be split into civil and criminal court divisions. The 3 most senior justices – the only remaining justices appointed by the last Democratic Governor – would be moved to the criminal bench.

The 3 new appointees to be picked by Rick Scott would sit on the civil division. The civil court would oversee social issues like abortion and political redistricting.

GOP has no love for the Florida Supreme Court

Also included in the proposed Supreme Court rigging amendment, The Governor would appoint all members of the Judicial Nominating Commission – only one third of which are currently appointed by the Governor. The Republican controlled Senate would be able to confirm the Governor’s appointments. It would also allow the state legislature to repeal court rulings.

“No one party should be in control of all levels of government,” said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek. “This is an attempt by leadership to not only command the governor’s office, the House and the Senate — but also the judiciary.” Democrats charge the Republicans are overreaching – an attempt by the GOP legislature and Governor Scott to shape redistricting efforts by restricting the court’s independence.

Over 60% of Floridians who voted in November approved Amendments 5 & 6, the Fair District Amendments.

Republicans in the state have been working against the measures, first with their own amendment that was struck down by the courts for being intentionally misleading, and most recently with their lawsuit against implementation. Governor Voldemort even went so far as to withdraw the amendments for review by the DOJ (in compliance with the Voter Rights Act) before the state legislature resubmitted them with prejudicial language.